All of the backstory of Tales
of the Quantum Corps is part of a greater universe of which these books are
a part. Some of you have asked if more
books in this series are coming and the answer is yes! I’ve got a new ebook coming out at the end of
September, 2015. It’s called Johnny Winger and the Europa Quandary. Here’s an advance excerpt from the book,
which will be available at ebook retailers everywhere on September 26, 2015:
Prologue
It is better to
conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or
by demons, heaven or hell.
Buddha
Europa
September 1, 2120
On Europa, there is only ice…to the naked eye. Ice cliffs and ice valleys. Ice ravines and ice canyons. Ice bergs, buttes, badlands. Ice continents. Above the ice is the vacuum of space. Below the ice is a vast ocean, black as
night. Normally, the two don’t mix.
In the late summer of 2120, as people on Earth reckon time,
a small channel of sluggish, slightly warmer ice surged upward through the
badlands of Conamara Chaos, embedded in a
column known to geologists as a diapir, and burst through the surface
crust. A geyser erupted into space, not
in itself an unusual occurrence on Europa.
However, this geyser extended over several square kilometers, flinging
tons of ice and steam into the heavens.
This geyser caught the attention of observers on Earth and
at Korolev Crater’s Farside Observatory, on the Moon.
After the Jovian Hammer
mission some years before, an orbiting detection network had been put into
place around Europa. Known as Europa-Eye, it was designed to provide
intelligence on what the Keeper, still thought to be buried in the Europan sea,
was doing. The network contained
numerous instruments: visual cameras, mass spectrometers, neutron flux devices,
radiometers.
On the first day of September, Europa-Eye detected evidence of some kind of vast swarm movement
under the ice. Increased thermals,
spikes in electromagnetic activity, even acoustic signals well above baseline
were detected and processed through SpaceGuard Center at Farside.
There was no consensus on what the signals meant, just a
growing suspicion that the Keeper, a colossal swarm of nanobotic devices, seemed
to be stirring after more than a decade of quiescence. Analysts at SpaceGuard Center,
vidconferencing with their colleagues at the UNISPACE Watch Command Center in
Paris, concurred that something was happening on the surface of Europa,
something different, something unexpected.
Visual analysis from Europa-Eye
was inconclusive. But it was plain to
see from the imagery streaming back from Jupiter’s huge satellite, that a newly
formed geyser had just erupted on the surface.
After some discussion, UNISPACE analysts finally decided to log the
event as an icequake, a shifting of ice plates and ice continents, that had
opened up a channel to pressurized water beneath. That water, rising through the newly formed
channel from the Europan ocean, was now sublimating into space, in a series of
spectacular geysers. The phenomenon
seemed to be mainly centered along a series of ice grooves, known as linea, starting in the Conamara Chaos
and ending at the southern end of Radamanthys Linea, longitude 192 degrees, latitude
12 degrees north.
Or so they thought.
The report issued to CINCSPACE made the conclusion that the geyser field
was nothing more than an unusual series of ice plates shifting about, despite
growing evidence of massive swarm movements in the ocean below. Europa-Eye
would continue to observe and record the event, providing thesis material for
astronomers and geologists and glaciologists for years to come. Farside and UNISPACE would continue to
monitor the activity that had roiled the surface of Europa.
But the report was firm in its principal conclusion: natural forces were responsible for a series
of new ice geysers erupting on the surface of Europa. It was more violent and spectacular than
before, but nothing the investigators hadn’t seen before on countless worlds,
even on Europa itself.
What Europa-Eye
could not see, however, was what was actually embedded in the main geyser,
hidden from view, obscured by the violence of tons of ice sublimating into
space every second. The Keeper swarm
itself, once a target of Quantum Corps investigation from close range during
the Golden Horde case, was no longer
submerged in Europa’s ocean of night.
Instead, the Keeper had bored through more than thirty kilometers of ice
and arisen to the surface of the satellite.
Now residing in a steep ice ravine, surrounded by towering ice cliffs,
hidden by geysering spouts of water, the vast swarm boiled away like a
festering sore, slamming atoms to maintain itself and expand in the maelstrom
of erupting ice and water.
As it settled onto the icy surface, the Keeper had begun to
bud off trillions of replicant bots from its main structure. The Keeper was shedding parts of itself.
These bots sloughed off and drifted upward, some riding on
droplets of water, particles of ice sublimating into the vacuum. Most of the bots managed to achieve escape
velocity through infinitesimal nano-scale thrusters, using the available water
as propellant. Orienting themselves
toward the Sun, the swelling swarm of nanobots soon entered a steep, elliptical
heliocentric orbit, an orbit which would intersect the orbit of Earth in less
than six months.
Disguised by the geysers, the swarm escaped Europa and the
Jupiter system completely. They now
drifted sunward…and Earthward.
Chapter 1
Haleyville, Idaho USA
December 23, 2120
8:30 p.m.
Johnny Winger spotted Liam just as he came off the
jetway. Boise Airport was busy two days
before Christmas, as busy as the terminal ever became. Winger spied his son straight away, lugging a
shoulder bag.
He’s taller than I
remember, Winger thought. He waved
and Liam came over. They shook hands
and, after a moment’s hesitation, hugged briefly.
“Professor,” he smiled at the boy, “so glad you could make
it.”
Liam Winger had become a newly minted professor of
computational neuroscience at Cambridge University in the last year. Winger and Dana Tallant were as proud as
parents could be.
“Dad…please. It’s
just me.”
“Let’s get the rest of your bags. Come on…your mom’s got a special dinner
waiting for you.”
They retrieved the rest of Liam’s luggage and headed out,
toward Haleyville, a two hour drive northeast, from Boise. Highway 21 was moderately busy, but Winger
let auto-drive do the job and sat back to regard his son with a mixture of
pride and curiosity.
He watched as the snow-capped peaks of the Sawtooth Range
drew closer. Somewhere up there, past
the front range, was Table Top Mountain and a lifetime of Quantum Corps
memories. “The Brits are treating you
well?”
Liam seemed lost in thought.
“I’m up for tenure, Dad. You knew
that. Committee’s supposed to make a
decision in February.”
“You have a big teaching load? The kids driving you nuts yet?” Winger chuckled at that; Liam was in his
mid-twenties, still a kid himself to he and Dana.
“Not so bad. I teach
two classes this Winter semester, both fourth level: Neurosynch 310 and a
Special Projects course. I’m spending a
lot more time in the lab now…which I like.”
“I’ll bet. I read
your paper from the Geneva conference. ‘ANAD Applications in Cortical Cognitive
Enhancements’,” he recited from memory.
“Seems like it was well received…what I understood of it.”
Liam shrugged, but he was secretly proud. “The Q&A went on so long, the Conference
referees had to turn out the lights, it’s true.”
They were quiet for awhile.
It was Monday afternoon, snowing lightly, and Johnny Winger was looking
forward to the special dinner Dana had promised. Christmas eve was tomorrow night. Having Liam home for the holidays was the
best present they could ever have gotten.
“How about you, Dad?
Still itching to get back into the field…fight those bots and slam some
atoms?”
Winger snorted. He‘d
been retired for several years now.
“Maybe. Hey, I stay busy. The Corps calls me in for consultations on
things. I’ve still got my
clearances.” He refused to admit the
truth, even to Liam, perhaps even to himself, though it surfaced often enough,
usually when he least expected it. He
did miss atom-grabbing, chewing the fat with Quantum Corps troopers,
hot-rodding ANAD bots into and out of every crack in the universe of atoms and
molecules. “I have a lot going on.”
“Yeah,” Liam chuckled softly, “we both know just how much
you love that gardening.”
The car’s autodrive led them unerringly to the Winger
household, nestled in the brow of a low wooded hill, just outside
Haleyville. It was a two-story ranch
house, surrounded by over a hundred acres of pasture and woodland. There was a barn nearby, silver with age,
where Winger kept a quartet of Arabians.
Snow was everywhere and more was falling, but Liam and Johnny Winger bantered and lied
to each other good-naturedly, swapping jokes as they hustled Liam’s luggage
inside, dropping the bags off the with the housebot.
Dana Tallant came out from the kitchen. She gave Liam a light hug and clucked and
fussed over her son…how are you feeling?…are
you eating enough?…you look a little thin to me…why do you wear your hair that
way?…it’s so good to have you home…why don’t you come home more often?....
Pleasantries aside, Liam worked with the housebots to get
his luggage to an upstairs bedroom.
Truth was, he felt a little uneasy about being home; he hadn’t kept in
regular communication with his parents and he didn’t really want to. He’d had enough of the Corps growing up with
his sister Rene and his Dad and Mom never home.
With Johnny Winger and Dana Tallant both giving their lives to the
Corps, and slamming atoms halfway around the world and the other side of the
solar system, Liam had left for college and never looked back. Now a professor at Cambridge, he just wanted
to live his own life and forget the Corps.
Hell, he’d spent more time with Howie the housebot than he
had with either General John Winger or Trooper Dana Tallant. Living in the shadow of the Corps and having
a normal family life were oil and water…they didn’t mix well and if they did
mix, it didn’t taste right.
Liam was finishing up stowing his gear when he heard a soft
knock at the door. His Dad nudged the
door open, bearing a couple of beers.
“Her Majesty wants us down for snacks and drinks in half an
hour. I thought you might like a
starter.”
Liam took the beer and chugged down a deep pull. He winced at the taste. “Sorry, Dad…I’ve gone native…you know, stout
and that sort of thing. Too much time in
the pubs, I guess.”
Winger sat down on an old footlocker in the corner, rubbing
his chin with the cold lip of the bottle.
“Your mother and I are both glad you could make it this year, Liam. How long’s it
been—“
Liam shrugged, propping himself up in the bed with some
pillows. “I’m not sure…hey, you know Howie would cut off my
legs if I did this, a long time ago. No feet with shoes on the bed, Master
Liam. House rules. And no drinking in bed…”
“Yeah, but bots are different now. Take Curly there—“ he indicated the housebot
whirring softly at the door, an expectant ‘smile’ on its animatronic face—“now
Curly’s got the latest modules…Empathy 2.0, a neat little forgiveness utility
you can select settings for, neural processor…right up your alley, son. Curly enforces house rules, but with a
grandmother’s touch…a little candy along with the stick. You’d have loved it.”
Liam had to laugh. “I
probably did some of the programming, if it’s a Servodyne product. The Lab consulted on their earliest models.”
Winger’s smile slowly faded.
“Liam, I came by to give you a little heads-up…about your mother. Before dinner, I mean.”
“What kind of heads-up?
What’s wrong?”
Winger sort of half-shrugged. He downed the rest of his beer. “She’s changed. In the last few months, maybe longer, I can’t
put my finger on it exactly, but she’s seems a little distant. Maybe the last few years, actually.”
“Changed. How?”
“Little things, really.
She seems more distant. When
we’re in the family room, I’m watching some vid and she’s creating something on
her tablet…she’s loves that tablet…I’ll see her staring off into space. You know your mother always was a
chatterbox…but now, she seems—I don’t know—lost, far away, her mind a million
light-years away. When I try to talk to
her, I get just these real bland, almost canned answers…like you’d hear from
Curly over there. Actually, I get more
feeling from Curly than I do from her.”
Liam shook his head.
“She hugged me downstairs like she was going to crush me.”
“Oh, she does things like that…on special occasions. But most of the time…there’s no real
feeling. It’s like she’s running on
auto, just input and output. And her skin
feels funny. Maybe we’re getting old,
but we’ve both had all the treatments.
She’s got the same cytes and bots inside as me. But something’s not quite right.” Winger smiled a little sheepishly. “Plus the sex is gone too. I miss that.”
Liam held up a hand.
“Okay, I get the picture, Dad. I
don’t need to know more. Maybe some bots
are malfunctioning. She felt okay when
we hugged.”
Winger debated saying more, his face a battlefield of
conflicting thoughts, then he set his lips and made up his mind. “Liam, I don’t know quite know how to say
this, but I think you’re mother ‘s an angel.”
Liam blinked. “I’m
sorry, Dad…what did you say? Mom’s an
angel?”
Winger gave his empty bottle to Curly, who trundled off to
dispose of it. Now they were alone.
“I don’t have to tell you how good angels are now. I mean, I can walk into the bar at the Custer
Inn now and look around and know that half the people there are clouds of bots,
and the hell of it is I can’t tell.
Nobody can. And I’m not sure how
much any of them care either. I mean
they’re all over.”
Liam swallowed hard.
“Dad, this is nuts. This is
insane.” He looked at his bottle. “What the hell is in this stuff anyway?”
“I’m serious. Go down
to the kitchen right now, if you don’t believe me. Grab hold of your Mom…give her a big
hug. Feel her skin. Better yet, just watch her hands. I’m telling you: there are edge effects. I know it sounds crazy. But somehow, some way, Dana Tallant has
become a cloud of bots, an angel. And I
don’t know when it happened.”
Liam regarded his Dad with a quizzical stare. “I think retirement’s done something to your
head. I realize angels are almost like
Normals now…it’s hard for me to tell them apart. But Mom…my
Mom? Come on—“
Winger held up a hand.
“You know what they say about angels: edge effects, blurry fingers, they
walk through furniture, don’t bleed right.
I can prove it…it’s not just my imagination.”
Liam was skeptical.
“How?”
“The way she bleeds.
I’ve seen cuts, scrapes, that sort of thing. The ‘blood’ doesn’t look right. It doesn’t flow right. Sometimes it’s a subtle thing, but hell—I’ve
got forty years as an atomgrabber. I
know what nanobots look like. How they operate.
I just don’t have the gear here to prove it.”
Liam rubbed a control stud along the side of his
glasses. “Maybe I do.”
Winger went on. “I’ve
been trying to get her over to Table Top, tried to concoct some kind of reason
to have the medics take a look. You know
we both have PX privileges. Medical
coverage from the Corps. But she won’t
go. A month ago, she had some kind of
bad cough. Wouldn’t even talk about
seeing a doctor. That’s not like your
Mom.”
“Dad, don’t you think this is just age—“ When Winger looked annoyed, Liam held up a
hand. “What I mean is that you two
aren’t kids anymore. I know you’ve had
treatments and you’ve got all kinds of bots and cytes inside of you. That’s probably what you’re seeing. She just needs a few adjustments, maybe a
re-load, that’s all.”
Winger considered that.
“Of course, you may be right, Liam, but I’d like you to take a closer
look yourself.”
“What do you mean, exactly?”
Winger was already ducking out the door. “Just an idea I’ve had for some time. You’ve got those fancy glasses, I see.”
Liam pulled off his SuperQuarks. “Just got ‘em. The Lab coughed up enough money for all the
staff to have them. Hyper-imaging,
nano-scale resolution, bioscan on a hundred different channels. I could send you a live signal of my cortical
EEG right now.”
“That’s okay. Just
make sure you bring them to dinner…” he checked an old-fashioned watch on his
wrist. “Which if this is accurate,
should be in about half an hour.”
“Where’d you get that thing…the museum?”
Winger smiled.
“Grabbed it off a dinosaur, Liam.”
He ducked out the door and Liam dropped his now-finished beer onto a
tray Curley held out. The bot had
returned and now took the empty and whirred off happily down the hall.
Dinner was to be a pot roast, with enough trimmings to make
a battalion happy. Dana bustled about
the kitchen cheerily, not saying much, but with a pleasant half-smile to her
face. Winger helped with the salads and
the drinks, while Curley finished setting the table, laying out silverware and
festive napkins with robotic accuracy and aplomb.
A huge crock pot simmered on a burner nearby. A beef stew bubbled inside, tomorrow’s lunch
being made at the same time. Winger
caught Liam’s eye as he peered inside the pot to take in the aroma. Something about the crock pot. Liam studied the top edge, while Dana was
busying herself getting the roast out of the oven. He felt gingerly around the edge, felt the
sharp points under the grip. Somehow,
the grip had been—
“Careful, honey…that’s hot.”
Dana Tallant came over to stir the stew, took a deep breath herself and
pronounced herself satisfied. She
started to lift the lid completely off.
“Want me to do it?” Liam asked.
Dana shook her head.
“No, of course not. I’m not that
feeble yet.” She pulled the lid back and
immediately yanked her hand away.
“Ouch! Ow…that hurts---I’m cut a
little—“ She started to raise her
fingers to her mouth, to suck at the blood just beginning to flow.
“Let me see,” Liam offered.
He saw the slight nod Winger made and in that moment, Liam knew his Dad
had somehow arranged this little accident.
While he was examining Dana’s cut with one hand, he tapped a quick
sequence on the control studs of his eyepiece with his other hand. The pictures were snapped instantly, four in
all, all-bands, all-channels, full effects.
Then he clucked sympathetically.
“Maybe we out to wash that off and get it bandaged.”
Dana pulled her hand away.
“Don’t be silly…it’s just a little cut.
I’ll do it. Go help your father
with the salad and the plates.” She
jerked her hand away like she had been stung and vanished from the kitchen,
heading toward a nearby bathroom, shutting the door behind her.
You can download or buy the entire ebook at Smashwords.com
on September 26, 2015, or at other fine ebook retailers such as Barnes and Noble
or Apple shortly afterward.
I hope you enjoy it.
And if you like what you read, please write a review.
